Electronic book rentals

ABSTRACT

Architectures and techniques are described to rent electronic books. In particular, a content provider can rent electronic books to individuals for a specified rental term. The individuals may have the option to modify the rental term for an electronic book. The rental term for a particular electronic book may be modified by extending the rental term of the particular electronic book or decreasing the rental term of the particular electronic book. Individuals may also convert the rental of an electronic book to a purchase and a purchase of an electronic book to a rental. In order to rent the electronic books to individuals, the content provider may acquire permission from the publishers of the electronic books. In some cases, the content provider may acquire a pool of time-bound rentable licenses from the publishers to allocate to individuals renting electronic books from the content provider.

BACKGROUND

In some situations, individuals may prefer to rent a book from a contentprovider rather than purchase the book. For instance, individuals thatwant access to the content of a book or a portion of a book for alimited amount of time may be able to save money by renting the book,rather than buying the book. In a particular illustration, students mayprefer to rent their textbooks because the students may only utilize thetextbooks for a specified amount of time, such as a semester or aquarter.

However, a book rental experience may be inconvenient becauseindividuals renting books may still need to return the books to thecontent provider. In some cases, the individuals may return rented booksby visiting a location of the content provider. In other cases, theindividuals may return rented books by shipping the books back to thecontent provider.

Certain individuals may also find the use of physical books to beundesirable. In particular, individuals may find it inconvenient tocarry one or more physical books from one location to another,especially in situations where the books are heavy and/or awkward tocarry. Additionally, the storage of physical books may occupy a largeamount of space. Although, some content providers have started to offerrental options with respect to electronic books, these content providersprovide limited options and features with respect to electronic bookrentals.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similaror identical items or features.

FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture to rent electronic books.

FIG. 2 illustrates a model of renting electronic books utilizing aportfolio of time-bound licenses.

FIG. 3 illustrates components of a content provider server to rentelectronic books.

FIG. 4 illustrates components of a client device to rent electronicbooks.

FIG. 5 shows a user interface including a detail page of a physicaltextbook with an option to obtain information about renting anelectronic version of the textbook.

FIG. 6 shows a user interface including information about renting anelectronic version of a textbook and an option selectable to rent theelectronic version of the textbook.

FIG. 7 shows a user interface including a communication reminding acustomer that the rental period for a particular electronic book isgoing to expire.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a process for an electronic reader device torent an electronic book.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a process to rent an electronic book for aspecified duration and to change the rental term of the electronic book.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of a process to rent electronic booksutilizing a portfolio of time-bound licenses.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes architectures and techniques directed torenting electronic books. In particular, a content provider can rentelectronic books to individuals for a specified period of time. Theperiod of time specified to rent electronic books may be referred toherein as the “rental term” or the “rental period.”

Additionally, the individuals may have the option to modify the rentalterm for an electronic book. For example, individuals may have optionsrelated to extending the rental term. In another example, individualsmay have the option to decrease the rental term. Further, contentproviders may allow individuals to convert the rental of the electronicbook to the purchase of the electronic book. In addition, individualsmay convert the purchase of an electronic book to a rental of theelectronic book for a particular period of time.

In order to rent the electronic books to individuals, the contentprovider may acquire permission from the publisher(s) of the electronicbooks to rent the electronic books. The content provider may providepayment to the publisher for permission to rent the electronic booksaccording to a number of models. In some cases, the content provider mayprovide payment to the publisher based on a transaction formula thattakes into account one or more variables. In other cases, the contentprovider may acquire a portfolio of time-bound licenses related to anelectronic book that can be used to rent the electronic book.

Renting electronic books according to the architectures and techniquesdescribed herein improve an individual's experience with rentingelectronic books by providing flexibility in the rental term optionsoffered to the individual by the content provider. Additionally, acontent provider's experience with renting electronic books may beenhanced by utilizing models for acquiring permission from publishers torent electronic books that can increase revenue and minimize theinventory of electronic books held by the content provider at a giventime.

Some implementations of the architecture and techniques described hereinare described in the context of electronic books. The terms “electronicbook” and/or “eBook,” as used herein, may include electronic or digitalrepresentations of printed works, as well as digital content that mayinclude text, multimedia, hypertext, and/or hypermedia. Examples ofprinted and/or digital works include, but are not limited to, books,magazines, newspapers, periodicals, journals, reference materials,telephone books, textbooks, anthologies, instruction manuals,proceedings of meetings, forms, directories, maps, web pages, etc.However, certain concepts described herein are also applicable to othertypes of digital content items, such as music, audio books, video, andother content items that people watch, listen to, or otherwiseexperience.

Example Architecture

FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture 100 to rent electronic books. Thearchitecture 100 includes a content provider 102 that may rentelectronic books to one or more individuals, such as individual 104.Content of the electronic books may be provided to one or more clientdevices of the individual 104, such as client device 106. Although theclient device 106 of FIG. 1 is shown as an electronic reader device, theclient device 106 may include a desktop computer, a laptop computer, asmart phone, a mobile handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), aportable navigation device, a portable gaming device, a tablet computer,a watch, a portable media player, another computing device, and thelike.

At 108, the content provider 102 may acquire permission from thepublisher 110 to rent electronic books provided by the publisher 110 Forexample, the content provider 102 may acquire permission to rentelectronic books 112-116 stored in an electronic books data store 118coupled to the publisher 110. The content provider 102 may providepayment to the publisher 110 for acquiring permission to rent theelectronic books 112-116 according to one or more payment models 120. Insome implementations, the service provider 102 may provide payment tothe publisher 110 according to a transaction formula 122. For example,when the content provider 102 rents an electronic book, such as theelectronic book 114, to an individual, the transaction formula 122 maybe applied to determine a payment amount to the publisher 110. Incertain situations, the publisher 110 may be provided a flat fee eachtime that the electronic book 114 is rented to an individual. In otherscenarios, the content provider 102 may provide a payment to thepublisher 110 based on certain variables, such as a total number ofrentals of the electronic book 114, a length of the rental term, and thelike.

In other implementations, the content provider 102 may acquire a licenseportfolio 124 that can be utilized to rent one or more of the electronicbooks 112-116 and determine payment to the publisher 110 for permissionto rent the electronic books 112-116. In a particular example, thelicense portfolio 124 may represent a number of rentals of theelectronic book 114 that can be in effect at a particular time. When anindividual, such as the individual 104, requests to rent the electronicbook 114, the content provider 102 may allocate one of the licenses 124to the individual 104. Allocating the license 124 to the individual 104decreases the number of available rentals of the electronic book 114 byone. In addition, after the rental term expires, the number of availablerentals of the electronic book 114 increases by one. In some scenarios,the content provider 102 may provide a payment to the publisher 110 eachtime that one of the licenses 124 is allocated to an individual to rentone of the electronic books 112-116. In other instances, the contentprovider 102 may provide a one-time payment to the publisher 110 inorder to acquire each of the licenses 124.

In an illustrative implementation, at 126, the content provider 102 mayprovide content of the electronic book 114 to the client device 106. Insome cases, the content provider 102 may provide content of theelectronic book 114 to the client device 106 in response to receiving arequest from the client device 106 to rent the electronic book 114. Incertain situations, the content provider 102 may provide a portion ofthe electronic book 114 to the client device 106. For example, as theindividual 104 is reading the electronic book 114, the client device 106may request the portion of the electronic book 114 that the individual104 is reading at a particular time. In other situations, the contentprovider 102 may provide the entire content of the electronic book 114to the client device 106 and the client device 106 may store theelectronic book 114 in memory.

The content provider 102 may rent electronic books to the individual 104for a specified rental term 128. The rental term 128 may be a period oftime that the individual 104 can access content of the electronic books,such as 30 days, 90 days, and so on. In certain situations, the rentalterm 128 may change. For example, at 130, the individual 104 may modifythe rental term 128 of an electronic book, such as the electronic book114. The rental term 128 of the electronic book 114 may be modified in anumber of ways. To illustrate, at 132, the rental term 128 may beextended. Thus, the individual 104 may request to access content of theelectronic book 114 for a longer period of time, such as extending therental term from 30 days to 90 days. Additionally, at 134, theindividual 104 may convert a rental of the electronic book 114 to apurchase. In this way, the individual 104 may obtain permission forunlimited access to the content of the electronic book 114. Further, at136, the individual 104 may decrease the rental term of the electronicbook 114, such as from 180 days to 90 days. In other situations, theindividual 104 may convert a purchase of the electronic book 114 to arental of the electronic book 114 for a specified rental term.

The content provider 102 and the client device 106 may also exchangeinformation at 138 related to digital rights management. For example,the content provider 102 may provide metadata to the client device 106indicating the rental term 128 of the electronic book 114. In somecases, the client device 106 may utilize the digital rights managementmetadata to determine when the rental term 128 expires and preventsubsequent access to the electronic book 114. In another example, theservice provider 102 may determine when the rental term 128 expires andsend communications to the client device 106 to remove any content ofthe electronic book 114 from the client device 106 and prevent furtheraccess of the electronic book 114.

Example Electronic Book Rental Model

FIG. 2 illustrates a model of renting electronic books utilizing aportfolio of time-bound licenses. FIG. 2 illustrates a content provider202 that acquires time-bound rentable licenses from a publisher 204 thatare allocated to individuals as the individuals rent the electronicbooks associated with the licenses. In particular, the content provider202 may acquire a number of licenses that provide permission to rentelectronic book 206 stored in an electronic book data store 208. Thelicenses of the electronic book 206 may be stored in an electronic booklicenses data store 210 coupled to, or otherwise accessible to thecontent provider 202. In some instances, the electronic book licensesdata store 210 may store a pool or portfolio of licenses that can beallocated to electronic book rental customers of the content provider202. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the electronic book licenses datastore 210 stores licenses 212 of the electronic book 206. The licenses212 represent a number of rentals of the electronic book 206 that may bein effect at a particular time. In certain situations, one or more ofthe licenses 212 may be allocated for a fixed period of time, such as 30days, while in other situations one or more of the licenses 212 may beallocated for a variable period of time set by rental customers of thecontent provider 202.

In an illustrative implementation, when an individual, such asindividual 214, requests to rent the electronic book 206 from thecontent provider 202 via a client device 216, the content provider 202may, at 218, allocate one of the licenses 212 to the individual 214.When one of the licenses 212 is allocated to the individual 214, thenumber of licenses 212 available to be allocated for rentals of theelectronic book 206 may decrease by one. In some cases, allocating thelicense 212 to the individual 214 may include providing permission tothe client device 216 that allows access to content of the electronicbook 206 by the client device 216 for a specified period of timeassociated with the license 212. In some cases, the permission sent tothe client device 216 may be provided in the form of metadata of theelectronic book 206, such as one or more keys, one or more vouchers, oneor more tokens, one or more certificates, or combinations thereof, thatcan be utilized to access content of the electronic book 206.

After the period of time associated with the license 212 allocated tothe individual 214 expires, the permission to access the content of theelectronic book 206 may be removed from the client device 216 at 220.Consequently, the number of licenses 212 that are available for rentalof the electronic book 206 increases by one. In some cases, the clientdevice 216 may send the permission back to the content provider 202,while in other cases, the content provider 202 may communicate with theclient device 216 to delete the permission from memory of the clientdevice 216.

The content provider 202 may also rent the electronic book 206 to theindividual 222 by allocating one of the licenses 212 to the individual222 at 224. For example, the individual 222 may utilize a client device,such as client device 226, to request to rent the electronic book 206for a specified rental term. In certain instances, the license 212allocated to the individual may be the same license 212 that wasallocated to the individual 214, while in other instances a differentlicense 212 may be allocated to the individual 214. In either case, therental term of the electronic book 206 for the individual 222 may be thesame or different from the rental term of the electronic book 206 forthe individual 214. In response to allocating one of the licenses 212 tothe individual 222, the content provider 202 may send metadataindicating permission to access content of the electronic book 206 tothe client device 226. Thus, the individual 222 can access content ofthe electronic book 206 for the period of time associated with thelicense 212. After the period of time associated with the license 212expires, the permission may be removed from the client device 226 at228. In some instances, one or more of the licenses 212 may beassociated with a maximum number of allocations, such that a particularlicense 212 can be allocated to individuals up to the specified maximumnumber of allocations.

The content provider 202 may also provide payment to the publisher 204for the rental of electronic books. In a particular implementation, at230, an initial rental fee may be provided to the publisher 204 from thecontent provider 202 when one of the licenses 212 associated withelectronic book 206 is first allocated to an individual requesting torent the electronic book 206. Subsequent rentals of the electronic book206 may be followed by a royalty payment, at 232, from the contentprovider 202 to the publisher 204. In some cases, the royalty paymentmay be a certain portion of the initial rental fee.

Example System

FIG. 3 illustrates components of a system 300 to rent electronic books.The system 300 includes a content provider 302 with a content providerserver 304 that may comprise a single server, a cluster of servers, aserver farm or data center, and so forth, although other serverarchitectures (e.g., a mainframe architecture) may also be used. In aparticular implementation, the content provider server 304 may rentelectronic books to individuals, such as individual 306. The individual306 may receive the electronic books via a client device 308.Additionally, the content provider 302 may obtain permission to rent theelectronic books from one or more publishers, such as publisher 310.

The content provider server 304, the client device 308, and one or morecomputing devices (not shown) of the publisher 310 may exchangecommunications via a network 312. The network 312 may be representativeof any one or combination of multiple different types of wired andwireless networks, such as the Internet, cable networks, satellitenetworks, wide area wireless communication networks, wireless local areanetworks, and public switched telephone networks (PSTN).

The content provider server 304 includes one or more processorsindicated by the processor 314. The content provider server 304 alsoincludes memory 316 that is accessible by the processor 314. The memory316 is an example of computer readable storage media and may includevolatile memory, nonvolatile memory, removable memory, non-removablememory, or a combination thereof. For example, the memory 316 mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, one ormore hard disks, solid state drives, optical memory (e.g. CD, DVD), orother non-transient memory technologies. The memory 316 may store anumber of modules including computer-readable instructions executable bythe processor 314 to rent electronic books to individuals.

The content provider server 304 may include or otherwise be coupled to acontent provider data store 318 that may include a number of massstorage devices, such as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID).The content provider data store 318 may store electronic book content320. The electronic book content 320 may include content of a number ofelectronic books, such as electronic book 322, that may be rented by thecontent provider 302 to one or more individuals. In some cases, thecontent provider 302 may acquire the electronic book content 320 fromone or more publishers, such as the publisher 310. Additionally, theelectronic book content 320 may include supplemental content, such ascommentary, annotations, and/or notes associated with certain electronicbooks. In certain instances, the commentary, annotations, and/or notesmay be provided by an author of a particular electronic book or anexpert in a field related to the particular electronic book. Thesupplemental content may also include image content, video content,audio content, and the like, that is related to electronic booksacquired by the content provider 302.

The content provider data store 320 also stores electronic book rentallicenses 324. The electronic book rental licenses 324 may indicatepermission to access content of a particular electronic book. Forexample, an electronic book rental license 326 associated with theelectronic book 322 may be allocated to an individual to access contentof the electronic book 322. In some cases, the content of the electronicbook 322 may be accessed by downloading the entire content of theelectronic book 322 from the content provider 302. In other cases, aportion of the content of the electronic book 322 may be obtained basedon a section of the electronic book 322 that an individual is consumingat a particular time. In certain situations, the electronic book rentallicense 326 may be allocated in order to access content associated withthe electronic book 322 via the publisher 310 or another distributor ofelectronic books, rather than the content provider 302. The electronicbook rental licenses 324 may be part of one or more portfolios oflicenses that can be allocated to individuals requesting to rentelectronic books. Each of the portfolios of licenses may represent atotal number of rentals of a particular electronic book that can beallocated at a given time.

The content provider data store 318 may also store rental customerannotations 328. In particular, individuals renting electronic booksfrom the content provider 302 may make annotations related to theelectronic books being rented. In some cases, the rental customerannotations 328 may include notes, links, highlighted portions ofelectronic books, and/or other content related to electronic books thatrental customers may associate with the electronic books. The rentalcustomer annotations 328 may be stored by the content provider 302 foraccess by the electronic book rental customers. In some instances, thecontent provider 302 may provide access to annotations of electronicbook rental customers via one or more pages of a site of the contentprovider, such as content provider account pages corresponding torespective electronic book rental customers.

Further, the content provider data store 318 stores digital rightsmanagement data 330. The digital rights management data 330 may indicaterental term information associated with electronic books that are rentedby individuals from the content provider 302. For example, the digitalrights management data 330 may indicate when the respective rental termfor certain electronic books is set to expire, an amount of time beforethe rental term for the electronic books expires, and so forth. In somescenarios, the digital rights management data 330 may be metadataprovided in association with the electronic book content 320 ofparticular electronic books. In some situations, the digital rightsmanagement data 330 may include one or more keys, one or more vouchers,one or more tokens, one or more certificates, or a combination thereof.

The memory 316 stores an electronic book publisher module 332 that isexecutable by the processor 314 to acquire permission from the publisher310 for the content provider 302 to rent electronic books. In aparticular implementation, the electronic book publisher module 332 mayobtain permission from the publisher 310 to rent a particular electronicbook, such as the electronic book 322, by agreeing to provide paymentsto the publisher 310 according to a transaction formula. The transactionformula may include one or more variables that are utilized to determinea payment amount.

In other implementations, the electronic book publisher module 332 mayacquire permission from the publisher 310 for the content provider 302to rent electronic books by acquiring a number of rentable licenses forthe electronic books to be rented. Each of the rentable licenses may beassociated with a particular rental term. The electronic book publishermodule 332 may acquire licenses of varying rental terms for eachelectronic book that is being rented. For example, the electronic bookpublisher module 332 may acquire a number of 30-day licenses, a numberof 90-day licenses, a number of 180-day licenses, and so on, for theelectronic book 322. The electronic book publisher module 332 may alsoacquire a number of licenses that have variable rental terms. In thisway, the content provider 302 can rent electronic books to individualsfor rental periods that are customized for the needs of particularindividuals.

In certain scenarios, the licenses acquired by the content provider 302to rent electronic books may be associated with a maximum number ofallocations. In an illustrative implementation, the license 326 may beassociated with three (3) rental allocations of the electronic book 322.Thus, the content provider 302 can allocate the license 326 three (3)times to rent the electronic book 322 to one or more individuals for theduration of the rental term of the license 326.

The memory 316 also stores an electronic book rental module 334 that isexecutable by the processor 314 to rent electronic books to individuals.In some cases, the electronic book rental module 334 may receiverequests from individuals to rent an electronic book from the contentprovider 302 for a specified term. In an illustrative implementation,the electronic book rental module 334 may receive a request to rent theelectronic book 322 from the individual 306 via the client device 308.In some cases, the electronic book rental module 334 may conduct afinancial transaction with respect to the rental of the electronic book322 to receive a payment from the individual 306 for renting theelectronic book 322.

The electronic book rental module 334 may also provide metadata to theclient device 308, where the metadata indicates permission to accesscontent of the electronic book 322. For example, after receiving arequest to rent the electronic book 322, the electronic book rentalmodule 334 may then send the content of the electronic book 322 to theclient device 308 for local storage at the client device 308.Additionally, the electronic book rental module 334 may send metadata ofthe electronic book 322 to client device 308, where the metadataincludes vouchers, keys, certificates, tokens, etc., that can beutilized to access the content of the electronic book 322. In somesituations, the individual 306 may specify delivery of the electronicbook 322 to other client devices of the individual 306, to a remotestorage space of the individual 306, or combinations thereof.

Additionally, when the content provider 302 has acquired licenses fromthe publisher 310 regarding the electronic book 322, the electronic bookrental module 334 may allocate one of the licenses associated with theelectronic book 322, such as the license 326, to the individual 306. Theelectronic book rental module 334 may decrease the number of licensesavailable to be allocated to rent the electronic book 322 by one inresponse to allocating the license 326 to the individual 306. Thelicense allocated to the individual 306 may depend on the rental termfor the electronic book 322. For example, for a rental term of 90 daysspecified in a rental request by the individual 306, the electronic bookrental module 334 may allocate a 90-day rental license associated withthe electronic book 322 to the individual 306. Further, the licenseallocated to the individual 326 may be associated with a variable rentalterm that can correspond to a length of time requested by the individual326 to rent the electronic book 322.

After allocating a license associated with the electronic book 322 tothe individual 306, the electronic book rental module 334 may providethe content of the electronic book 322 to the client device 308. Theelectronic book rental module 334 may also provide metadata of theelectronic book 322 to the client device 308. In some cases, themetadata may indicate permission for the individual 306 to accesscontent of the electronic book 322. For example, the electronic bookrental module 334 may send keys, vouchers, tokens, certificates, and soon, related to the electronic book 322 to the client device 308. In thisway, the individual 306 can access content of the electronic book 322via the client device 308. The metadata for the electronic book 322provided to the client device 308 may also indicate the rental term forthe electronic book 322.

In certain cases, the electronic book rental module 334 may provide aportion of the content of the electronic book 322 to the client device308. For example, after permission has been provided to the clientdevice 308 to access content of the electronic book 322, the electronicbook rental module 334 may send a portion of the electronic book 322 tothe client device 308 corresponding to the portion of the electronicbook 322 being consumed by the individual 306 at a particular time. Toillustrate, when the individual 306 is reading a particular page orpages of the electronic book 322, the electronic book rental module 334may send the particular page or pages of the electronic book 322 to theclient device 308. The electronic book rental module 334 may also sendadditional content of the electronic book 322 to the client device 308,such as one or more pages subsequent to the particular page or pagesbeing consumed, one or more pages preceding the particular page or pagesbeing consumed, supplemental content associated with the particular pageor pages being consumed, predicted content that may be subsequentlyconsumed by the individual 306 (e.g. predicting a next article that maybe read based on past reading history), and so forth. The electronicbook rental module 334 may send at least some of the content of theelectronic book 322 to the client device 308 in response to receiving arequest from the client device 308 for the content. In situations wherethe content of the rented electronic books is sent to individuals inportions based on current and/or future consumption by the individuals,the electronic book rental module 334 may send metadata to the clientdevice 308 indicating that the individual 306 can access the particularportions of the electronic book 322 requested by the electronic bookrental module 334.

When the rental term for the electronic book 322 expires, the electronicbook rental module 334 may prevent access to content of the electronicbook 322. In some cases, the electronic book rental module 334 may causecontent of the electronic book 322 to be removed from local storage ofthe client device 308 and prevent further downloading of the content ofthe electronic book 322 to the client device 308. For example, theelectronic book rental module 334 may specify that a permission providedto the individual 306 has expired and deny further requests to accesscontent of the electronic book 322 by the individual 306. In aparticular implementation, the electronic book rental module 334 maymodify metadata of the electronic book 322 to indicate that access to atleast a portion of the electronic book 322 is prohibited. Further, whenthe rental term of the electronic book 322 expires, the electronic bookrental module 334 may increase a number of licenses available toallocate to individuals to rent the electronic book 322 by one.

Further, the memory 316 stores a rental term modification module 336that is executable by the processor 314 to modify rental termsassociated with electronic books rented by the content provider 302. Inparticular, the rental term modification module 336 may modify therental term associated with the electronic book 322 in response to arequest received from the individual 306 via the client device 308. Insome cases, the rental term may be extended, such as from 30 days to 90days. In other cases, the rental term may be decreased. In still othersituations, the individual 306 may request to convert rental of theelectronic book 322 to a purchase of the electronic book 322. The rentalterm modification module 336 may also convert purchases of theelectronic book 322 to rentals.

In order to change the rental term for the electronic book 322, therental term modification module 336 may modify the metadata provided tothe individual 306 with respect to accessing content of the electronicbook 322. For example, the rental term modification module 336 maymodify the metadata provided to the client device 308 to provide accessto the electronic book 322 for a greater amount of time or a lesseramount of time. To illustrate, the rental term modification module 336may send modifications of the metadata of the electronic book 322, suchas modifications to vouchers, keys, certificates, tokens, and so forth,to the client device 308.

In situations, where the license 326 is associated with a fixed rentalterm, the rental term modification module 336 may return the license 326granted to the individual 306 with respect to an initial rental termrequested by the individual 306 and allocate a different license to theindividual 306 that is associated with the modified rental term. Toillustrate, the rental term modification module 336 may return a 90-daylicense granted to the individual 306 in response to an initial rentalrequest and provide a 180-day license to the individual 306 uponreceiving a request from the individual 306 to increase the rental termto 180 days. In this situation, the rental term modification module 336may provide metadata of the electronic book 322 to the client device 308indicating the new rental term, an amount of the previous rental termthat has elapsed, and so forth.

In some cases, the rental term modification module 336 may sendreminders to individuals that their respective rental terms are going toexpire. In an illustrative implementation, the rental term modificationmodule 336 may send an email, text message, or other form ofcommunication to the individual 306 that the rental period for theelectronic book 322 is going to expire in a certain period of time (e.g.7 days, 24 hours, etc.). The reminders may include one or more linksthat are selectable to extend the rental term for the electronic book322. The rental term modification module 336 may also send notificationto the individual 306 that a requested extension of the rental term ofthe electronic book 322 may meet or exceed the purchase price of theelectronic book 332. In these cases, the rental term modification module336 may provide an option for the individual 306 to convert the rentalof the electronic book 322 to a purchase of the electronic book 322.

In situations where the rental term is extended or a rental of theelectronic book is 322 converted to a purchase, the rental termmodification module 332 may obtain payment from the individual 306 inresponse to a request to extend the rental term of the electronic book322. Further, in situations where the rental term of the electronic book322 is decreased or a purchase of the electronic book 322 is convertedto a rental, the rental term modification module 336 may refund value tothe individual 306 based on the decrease of the rental term. In somecases, the refund of value to the individual 306 may include addingvalue to an account of the individual 306 with the content provider 302that can be used for future acquisition of content from the contentprovider 302, adding value to an account of the individual 306 with afinancial institution, and the like.

The memory 316 also stores a publisher payment module 338 that isexecutable by the processor 314 to provide payment to the publisher 310for electronic books rented by the content provider 302 that wereobtained from the publisher 310. In a particular implementation, thepublisher payment module 338 may cause a payment to be made to thepublisher 310 each time a license provided to the content provider 302for a particular electronic book is allocated to an individual. In somecases, the royalty payment module 338 may provide different payments tothe publisher 310 for rental of an electronic book based on the numberof rentals associated with a particular license. For example, theroyalty payment module 338 may cause a payment of a specified amount tobe provided to the publisher 310 for an initial rental of the electronicbook 322 and provide payments of a lesser amount to the publisher 310for subsequent rentals of the electronic book 322. In certainsituations, the amounts of subsequent payments made to the publisher 310for rental of the electronic book 322 may decrease in steps until aminimum payment amount is achieved. In addition, the amount of a paymentto the publisher 310 may depend on the duration of a particular license,a maximum number of times that the particular license can be allocated,etc.

Further, the publisher payment module 338 may provide a payment to thepublisher 310 according to a transaction formula. The transactionformula may include a number of variables that can contribute todetermining a payment amount to the publisher 310. In certainsituations, the publisher payment module 338 may use a transactionformula specifying that the publisher 310 is provided with a payment ofa particular amount each time that an electronic book is rented. Inother instances, the publisher payment module 338 may determine apayment amount to the publisher 310 based on a total number of rentalsof an electronic book, a rental term for the electronic book, and so on.

Additionally, the memory 316 stores an annotations module 340 that isexecutable by the processor 314 to store and provide access toannotations made by individuals renting electronic books from thecontent provider 302. For example, as the individual 306 makesannotations with respect to the electronic book 322, the annotationsmodule 340 may receive the content of the annotations and store theseannotations in the content provider data store 318. The annotations ofthe electronic book 322 may include notes made by the individual 306,portions of the electronic book 322 highlighted by the individual 306,supplemental content associated with the electronic book 322 by theindividual 306, and so forth.

The annotations module 340 may also provide access to the annotationsmade by the individual 306. In some cases, the annotations module 340may receive requests from the client device 308 for specific annotationsof the electronic book 322 and subsequently provide the requestedannotations. In other situations, the annotations module 340 may provideannotations associated with a portion of the electronic book 322 that iscurrently being consumed, such as the annotations of a portion of theelectronic book 322 currently being viewed by the individual 306. Theannotations module 340 may also provide access to annotations of theelectronic book 322 made by the individual 306 via one or more pages ofa site provided by the content provider 302. For example, the individual306 may log into an account of the individual 306 with the contentprovider 302 and access annotations made by the individual 306 via ahome page of the individual 306 on a site of the content provider 302.

The annotations module 336 may also provide access to at least a portionof the annotations of the electronic book 322 by the individual 306after the rental term of the electronic book 322 has expired. Inparticular, the individual 306 may still retain permission to access atleast a portion of the annotations of the electronic book 322 after therental term for the electronic book 322 has expired. In an illustrativeimplementation, when the rental term of the electronic book 322 expires,the electronic book rental module 334 may modify metadata of theelectronic book 322 to indicate that access by the individual 306 toannotations of the electronic book 322 is permitted, while stillprohibiting access to other portions of the content of the electronicbook 322.

The memory includes a search module 342 that is executable by theprocessor 316 to provide searches of content of electronic books rentedby the content provider 302. In certain cases, the search module 342 mayreceive search requests from the client device 308 related to whetherparticular keywords are included in the electronic book 322. In responseto the search requests, the search module 342 may provide content fromthe electronic book 322, annotations of the electronic book 322,supplemental content of the electronic book 322, or combinationsthereof. Further, the search module 342 may provide search results forat least a portion of the content associated with the electronic book322 after the rental term for the electronic book 322 expires.

Further, the memory 316 stores a digital rights management module 344that is executable by the processor 316 to determine when the rentalterms of electronic books rented by the content provider 302 expire. Insome cases, the digital rights management module 344 may determine anindication of time that has elapsed since a particular electronic bookhas been rented. By comparing this indication of time to the rental termof the particular electronic book, the digital rights management module344 may determine whether the rental term of the particular electronicbook has expired. In an illustrative example, when the rental term ofthe electronic book 322 has expired, the digital rights managementmodule 344 may invoke the electronic book rental module 334 to modifymetadata of the electronic book 322 to indicate that the rental term forthe electronic book 322 has expired and to prevent further access to theelectronic book 322 by the individual 306. In another example, thedigital rights management module 344 may modify the metadata of theelectronic book 322 to indicate that the rental term for the electronicbook 322 has expired and prevent subsequent access to the electronicbook 322 by the individual 306. The digital rights management module 344may also send information to the client device 308 indicating whetherthe rental term of the electronic book 322 has expired, such that theclient device 308 can perform operations to restrict access to theelectronic book 322 by the individual 306.

Example Client Device

FIG. 4 illustrates components of a system 400 to rent electronic books.The system 400 includes a content provider 402 that may include one ormore servers, one or more data stores, and so on. The components of thecontent provider 402 may be the same or similar to the components of theservice provider 302 of FIG. 3. The system 400 also includes a clientdevice 404 that may be operated by one or more individuals, such asindividual 406. Although the client device 404 of FIG. 4 is shown as anelectronic reader device, the client device 404 may include a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a smart phone, a mobile handset, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a portable navigation device, a portable gamingdevice, a tablet computer, a watch, a portable media player, anothercomputing device, and the like. The service provider 402 and the clientdevice 404 may communicate via a network 408. The network 408 may berepresentative of any one or combination of multiple different types ofwired and wireless networks, such as the Internet, cable networks,satellite networks, wide area wireless communication networks, wirelesslocal area networks, and public switched telephone networks (PSTN).

The client device 404 includes one or more processors indicated byprocessor 410. The client device 404 also includes memory 412 that isaccessible by the processor 410. The memory 412 is an example ofcomputer readable storage media and may include volatile memory,nonvolatile memory, removable memory, non-removable memory, or acombination thereof. For example, the memory 412 may include, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, one or more hard disks,solid state drives, optical memory (e.g. CD, DVD), or othernon-transient memory technologies. The memory 412 may store a number ofmodules including computer-readable instructions executable by theprocessor 410 to rent electronic books from the content provider 402.

Additionally, the client device 404 includes one or more input/outputdevices 414. The one or more input/output devices 414 may include akeyboard, a pointer device (e.g. mouse), a microphone, a touchpad,speakers, a display device, a touch screen display, and the like. Theclient device 404 may also include one or more communication interfaces416 to communicate via the network 408 with other computing devices,such as computing devices of the content provider 402, other clientdevices, and so forth.

The client device 404 may also include or otherwise be coupled to aclient device data store 418. In some cases, the client device datastore 418 may be an internal memory device of the client device 404,while in other cases, the client device data store 418 may be a memorydevice that is external to the client device 404. The client device datastore 418 may store electronic book content 420. The electronic bookcontent 420 may include content of one or more electronic books, such aselectronic book 422, that may be rented by the individual 406 from thecontent provider 402. Additionally, the electronic book content 420 mayinclude supplemental content, such as commentary, annotations, and/ornotes associated with certain electronic books. In certain instances,the commentary, annotations, and/or notes may be provided by an authorof a particular electronic book or an expert in a field related to theparticular electronic book. The supplemental content may also includeimage content, video content, audio content, and the like, that isrelated to electronic books acquired by the individual 406.

The client device data store 418 also stores user electronic bookannotations 424. For example, the user electronic book annotations 424may include annotations provided by a user of the client device 404,such as the individual 406. In some cases, the user electronic bookannotations 424 may include notes, links, highlighted portions ofelectronic books, and/or other content related to electronic books thatthe individual 406 may associate with the electronic books.

Further, the content provider data store 418 stores digital rightsmanagement data 426. The digital rights management data 426 may indicaterental term information associated with electronic books that are rentedby the individual 406 from the content provider 402. For example, thedigital rights management data 426 may indicate when the respectiverental term for certain electronic books is set to expire, an amount oftime before the rental term for the electronic books expires, and soforth. In some scenarios, the digital rights management data 426 may bemetadata provided in association with the electronic book content 420 ofparticular electronic books. In a particular implementation, the digitalrights management data 426 may include one or more keys, one or morevouchers, one or more tokens, one or more certificates, or a combinationthereof, that are provided in association with the electronic bookcontent 420.

The memory 412 stores an electronic book rental module 428 that isexecutable by the processor 410 to rent electronic books from thecontent provider 402. In particular, the electronic book rental module428 may send a rental request to the content provider 402 to rent one ormore electronic books, such as the electronic book 422. In some cases,rental requests sent by the electronic book rental module 428 mayspecify a rental term. For example, the electronic book rental module428 may send a request to the content provider 402 to rent theelectronic book 422 from the content provider 402 for 90 days.

After sending a rental request to the content provider 402 for theelectronic book 422, the electronic book rental module 428 may receivemetadata from the content provider 402 to access content of theelectronic book 422. The metadata of the electronic book 422 mayindicate permission to access content of the electronic book 422. Themetadata may include one or more vouchers, one or more keys, one or morecertificates, one or more tokens, and so forth. The electronic bookrental module 428 may utilize the metadata of the electronic book 422 toobtain at least a portion of the content of the electronic book 422 fromthe content provider 402. In some cases, at least some of the content ofthe electronic book 422 obtained from the content provider 402 is storedin the client device data store 418, while in other cases, content ofthe electronic book 422 may be cached in a temporary memory device ofthe client device 404.

The electronic book rental module 428 may also send requests to thecontent provider 402 to modify rental terms of electronic books rentedfrom the content provider 402. In one example, the electronic bookrental module 428 may send a request to the content provider 402 toextend the rental term of the electronic book 422. In another example,the electronic book rental module 428 may send a request to the contentprovider 402 to decrease the rental term of the electronic book 422.Further, the electronic book rental module 428 may send a request to thecontent provider 402 to convert a purchase of the electronic book 422 toa rental of the electronic book 422 or to convert a rental of theelectronic book 422 to a purchase.

Upon sending a request to the content provider 402 to modify the rentalterm of the electronic book 422, the electronic book rental module 428may modify metadata of the electronic book 422 to reflect the modifiedrental term. In some cases, the electronic book rental module 428 mayreceive metadata from the content provider 402 indicating that theindividual 406 can access content of the electronic book 422 for anextended period of time or a decreased period of time depending onwhether the request to modify the rental term of the electronic book 422was a request to increase or decrease the rental term.

Further, when the rental term of the electronic book 422 expires, theelectronic book rental module 428 may prevent access to the electronicbook 422. In some cases, the electronic book rental module 428 maymodify metadata of the electronic book 422 to indicate that subsequentaccess to the electronic book 422 is prohibited. In other situations,the electronic book rental module 428 may access metadata of theelectronic book 422 received from the content provider 402 indicatingthat the rental term of the electronic book 422 has expired and denyrequests to access content of the electronic book 422 after expirationof the rental term. Additionally, the electronic book rental module 428may remove portions of the content of the electronic book 422 after therental term expires. To illustrate, the electronic book rental module428 may delete portions of the content of the electronic book 422 fromthe client device data store 418. The electronic book rental module 428may also send portions of the content of the electronic book 422 back tothe content provider 402.

The memory 412 also stores an electronic book rendering module 430 thatis executable by the processor 410 to consume portions of electronicbooks via the client device 404. For example, the electronic bookrendering module 430 may obtain a portion of the electronic book 422 andrender content of the portion of the electronic book 422 via one or moreoutput devices, such as a display device, speakers, and so forth. Insome cases, the electronic book rendering module 430 may obtain portionsof the electronic book 422 to be rendered from local storage of theclient device 404, such as the client device data store 418, a temporarymemory storage device, and the like. In other cases, the electronic bookrendering module 430 may obtain portions of the electronic book 422 tobe rendered from the content provider 402. To illustrate, as theindividual 406 reads the electronic book 422, the electronic bookrendering module 430 may obtain content of the electronic book 422locally or via the content provider 402 that corresponds to the portionsof the electronic book 422 being read by the individual 406 andsubsequently render the portions of the electronic book 422 being readby the individual 406.

In addition, the memory 412 stores a digital rights management module432 that is executable by the processor 410 to determine whether therental terms of electronic books rented from the content provider 402have expired. In some situations, the digital rights management module432 may receive an indication from the content provider 402 that arental term of an electronic book, such as the electronic book 422, hasexpired. The digital rights management module 432 may also utilizemetadata of the electronic book 422 stored in the client device datastore 418 specifying when the rental term expires and utilize anindication of time, such as a current time or a past time, obtained viathe client device 404 to determine when the rental term of theelectronic book 422 will expire. For example, the digital rightsmanagement module 432 may access information about an internal clock ofthe client device 404 to determine an indicator of time. In anotherexample, the digital rights management module 432 may determine anindicator of time that is independent of an internal clock of the clientdevice 404 and store this indicator of time in a local memory storagedevice. The digital rights management module 432 may then compare theindicator of time with metadata of the electronic book 422 indicatingexpiration of the rental term of the electronic book 422 to determinewhether the rental term has expired.

When the indicator of time meets or exceeds the rental term expirationtime, the digital rights management module 432 may prevent access to atleast a portion of the content of the electronic book 422. In someinstances, the digital rights management module 432 may send anindication to the content provider 402 that the rental term of theelectronic book 422 has expired. In other scenarios, the digital rightsmanagement module 432 may invoke the electronic book rental module 428to prevent access to content of the electronic book 422.

Further, the memory 412 includes a search module 434 that is executableby the processor 412 to search content of electronic books rented fromthe content provider 402. For example, the search module 434 may receivea search request including one or more keywords and search content ofthe electronic book 422 for the one or more keywords. In some cases, thesearch module 434 may search at least a portion of the content of theelectronic book 422 after expiration of the rental term of theelectronic book 422. To illustrate, metadata of the electronic book 422may indicate that the individual 406 has permission to search at least aportion of the content of the electronic book 422 after expiration ofthe rental term.

The memory 412 also stores an annotations module 436 that is executableby the processor 410 to access annotations made by the individual 406that are associated with electronic books rented from the contentprovider 402. In certain circumstances, the annotations module 436 mayprovide access to at least a portion of the annotations associated withelectronic books, such as the electronic book 422, after expiration ofthe respective rental terms. For example, metadata of the electronicbook 422 may indicate that the individual 406 can access annotations ofthe electronic book 422 after the expiration of the rental term. In somecases, the annotations may be stored locally in the client device datastore 418, while in other cases, the annotations may be stored remotely,such as at the content provider 402.

Example User Interfaces

FIG. 5 shows a user interface 500 including a detail page of a physicaltextbook with an option to obtain information about renting anelectronic version of the textbook. The user interface 500 may beprovided to via a display of a client device 502 to an individual 504.In certain instances, the user interface 500 may be rendered via acontent viewing application, such as a browser application, of theclient device 502.

The user interface 500 includes a first portion 506. The first portion506 includes a toolbar 508 with a number of icons that are selectable toperform operations with respect to content viewed via the user interface500. The first portion 506 also includes a locator portion 510 thatincludes a locator indicating a page of a site being viewed via the userinterface 500.

Additionally, the user interface 500 includes a second portion 512 thatincludes a page of a site providing options to acquire a book, EnglishLiterature Textbook. The second portion 512 includes information aboutthe book English Literature Textbook, such as a list price, availabilityinformation, an image of English Literature Textbook, an option topreview content of the book, information related to reviews of EnglishLiterature Textbook, and other information associated with the book.

The second portion 512 also includes an option 514 that is selectable toindicate a request to purchase English Literature Textbook. Further, thesecond portion 512 includes a portion 516 including information aboutrenting an electronic version of English Literature Textbook. Theportion 516 also includes an option 518 that is selectable to obtainmore information corresponding to renting an electronic version ofEnglish Literature Textbook.

FIG. 6 shows a user interface 600 including information about renting anelectronic version of a textbook and an option selectable to rent theelectronic version of the textbook. The user interface 600 may beprovided via a display of a client device 602 to an individual 604. Insome cases, the user interface 600 may be rendered by the client device602 in response to selection of the option 518 of FIG. 5. The userinterface 600 includes a first portion 606 having a toolbar 608 and alocator portion 610.

The user interface 600 also includes a second portion 612. The secondportion 612 includes information about an electronic version of the bookEnglish Literature Textbook, as well as, an option 614 to indicate arequest to purchase the electronic version of English LiteratureTextbook. Further, the second portion 612 includes a section 616 relatedto renting the electronic version of English Literature Textbook. Thesection 616 includes an element 618 and an element 620 that may capturea rental term for the electronic version of English Literature Textbook.For example, the element 618 may capture a beginning date of the rentalterm and the element 620 may capture an end date of the rental term. Thebeginning and/or end dates for the rental term may be selectable from adrop-down menu 622. In other implementations, one or more of theelements 618, 620 may be a text entry box where the individual 604 canenter a particular rental term, such as 125 days.

The drop-down menu 622 may include a calendar widget that can beutilized to select a rental term for English Literature Textbook. Incertain instances, the calendar widget may indicate times when rental ofEnglish Literature Textbook is not available. To illustrate, a contentprovider may set a minimum or maximum rental term. In these cases, thecalendar widget may prevent selection of days before the minimum rentalterm or after the maximum rental term. In particular situations, themaximum rental term may be related to a rental term associated with apayment amount that is equivalent to a purchase price of EnglishLiterature Textbook. In some implementations, the drop-down menu 622 mayinclude predetermined options for a rental term of English LiteratureTextbook, such as 30 days, 90 days, quarter, semester, and so forth. Thesection 616 may also include an option 624 that is selectable toindicate a request to proceed to conduct a transaction to rent theelectronic version of English Literature Textbook. In some cases, theoption 624 is not selectable until a rental term has been entered viathe elements 618, 620.

FIG. 7 shows a user interface 700 including a communication reminding acustomer that the rental period for a particular electronic book isgoing to expire. The user interface 700 may be provided via a display ofa client device 702 to an individual 704. In the illustrativeimplementation shown in FIG. 7, the user interface 700 may include acommunication (e.g. email, text message, etc.) sent from a contentprovider to an individual renting an electronic book from the contentprovider. In other implementations, the user interface 700 may include apage of a site of a content provider renting electronic books. Forexample, the information included in the user interface 700 may beaccessible via a page including information about an account of theindividual 704 with the content provider.

The user interface 700 includes a first portion 706 that indicates asender of the communication, a recipient of the communication, and thesubject of the communication. The user interface 700 also includes asecond portion 708 that includes the body of the communication. Thesecond portion 708 includes a section 710 indicating that a rental termof the electronic book English Literature Textbook will expire in 7days. The second portion 708 also includes an option 712 that isselectable to extend the rental term and an option 714 that isselectable to convert the rental of the electronic version of EnglishLiterature Textbook to a purchase of the electronic version of EnglishLiterature Textbook.

Example Processes

FIGS. 8-10 show processes 800-1000 respectively, to rent electronicbooks. The processes 800-1000 are illustrated as a collection of blocksin a logical flow graph, which represent a sequence of operations thatcan be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Inthe context of software, the blocks represent computer-executableinstructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media that,when executed by one or more processors, perform the recited operations.Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, and the like that performparticular functions or implement particular abstract data types. Theorder in which the operations are described is not intended to beconstrued as a limitation, and any number of the described blocks can becombined in any order and/or in parallel to implement the process. Theoperations described in FIGS. 8-10 may be performed by one or more ofthe components shown in FIGS. 1-7, such as the client devices 106, 216,228, 308, 404, 502, 602, 702, the content provider server 304, othercomputing devices, or a combination thereof.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a process 800 for an electronic readerdevice to rent an electronic book. At, 802, the electronic reader devicesends a request to a content provider to rent an electronic book for aspecified period of time, such as 30 days, 90 days, etc. At 804, theelectronic reader device receives permission from the content providerto access the electronic book for the specified period of time. Inparticular, the electronic reader device may receive metadata, such asone or more vouchers, one or more keys, one or more certificates, one ormore tokens, and the like, from the content provider that can beutilized to access the electronic book.

At 806, the electronic reader device receives an indication to render atleast a portion of the electronic book. For example, a user of theclient device may be reading a particular portion of the electronic bookand the electronic reader device may receive an indication that the useris changing pages of the electronic book or navigating to a differentportion of the electronic book. To illustrate, when the user of theelectronic reader device activates an input device of the electronicreader device to navigate to a particular portion of the electronicbook, a corresponding indication may be generated to cause theelectronic reader device to render the particular portion of theelectronic book.

At 808, the electronic reader device determines whether content of theelectronic book corresponding to the portion to be rendered is storedlocally at the electronic reader device. When the content to be renderedis stored locally, the process 800 moves to 810. At 810, the electronicreader device retrieves the portion of the electronic book to berendered from local memory of the electronic reader device, such as adata store, cache memory, or other local memory storage device of theelectronic reader device.

When content of the electronic book to be rendered is not stored locallyat the electronic reader device, the process moves to 812. At 812, theelectronic reader device retrieves the content to be rendered from thecontent provider. For example, the electronic reader device may send arequest to the content provider to obtain content of the electronic bookcorresponding to the particular portion of the electronic book to berendered. From both 810 and 812, the process moves to 814 where theelectronic reader device renders particular content of the electronicbook.

At 816, the electronic reader device sends a request to the contentprovider to modify the rental term of the electronic book. For example,the electronic reader device may send a request to extend the rentalterm of the electronic book or a request to reduce the rental term ofthe electronic book. At 818, the electronic reader device modifiesmetadata of the electronic book to reflect the modified rental term ofthe electronic book. In a particular implementation, the electronicreader device may modify the metadata of the electronic book to allowaccess to the content of the electronic book by the electronic readerdevice for the modified rental term.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of a process 900 to rent an electronic book fora specified duration and to change the rental term of the electronicbook. At 902, a content provider acquires permission from a publisher ofan electronic book to rent the electronic book to customers of thecontent provider. In some cases, the content provider may acquirepermission from the publisher to rent the electronic book by agreeing toprovide payments to the publisher according to a transaction formula inorder to rent the electronic book. In other cases, the content providermay acquire permission from the publisher to rent the electronic book byacquiring one or more licenses to access content of the electronic book.The one or more licenses may be associated with a fixed or variableperiod of time that corresponds to a rental term of the electronic book.Additionally, the one or more licenses may be associated with arespective number of allocations, such that each license may beallocated to rent the electronic book a specified number of times forthe period of time associated with the respective license.

At 904, the content provider receives a rental request from a clientdevice of an individual to rent an electronic book for a specifiedperiod of time. To illustrate, the individual may operate the clientdevice to send the rental request via one or more pages of a siteassociated with the content provider. In some instances, the rentalrequest may be received in association with a request to rent a physicalversion of the book. In this way, the individual can rent both theelectronic book and a physical version of the book. In some scenarios,the rental term for the electronic book and the physical version of thebook may be different. For example, rental of the electronic book may beoffered on a trial basis in conjunction with a corresponding rentaland/or purchase of a physical version of the book.

At 906, the content provider provides permission to the client devicefor the individual to access the electronic book for the specifiedperiod of time. In certain circumstances, the content provider mayprovide permission to the client device to access the electronic book bysending metadata of the electronic book, such as one or more vouchers,one or more tokens, one or more keys, one or more certificates, and thelike, to the client device. The content provider and the client devicemay also engage in one or more authentication processes in order toprovide the individual with access to the electronic book.

At 908, the content provider receives a rental term modification requestfrom the client device to change the period of time for the individualto rent the electronic book. In some cases, the rental term modificationrequest may correspond to a request to extend the period of time to rentthe electronic book. In other cases, the rental term modificationrequest may correspond to a request to decrease the period of time torent the electronic book. The rental term modification request may alsocorrespond to a request to convert the rental of the electronic book toa purchase of the electronic book. In certain instances, the rental termmodification request may be received from the client device aftersending a notification, such as an email, text message, etc., to theclient device that the rental term for the electronic book is going toexpire. The notification may include one or more options selectable tomodify the period of time to rent the electronic book. In a particularimplementation, the rental term modification request may be received bythe content provider in response to selection of the one or more optionsincluded in the notification by the individual. In otherimplementations, the rental term modification request may be received bythe content provider in response to selection of one or more optionsincluded on a page of a site of the content provider.

At 910, the content provider provides permission to the client devicefor the individual to access the electronic book for an additionalperiod of time, based at least partly, on the rental term modificationrequest. In an illustrative implementation, the content provider maysend modified metadata, such as modified vouchers, tokens, keys,certificates, etc., to the client device to provide the individual withaccess to the electronic book for the additional period of time.

At 912, the content provider provides an indication to the client devicethat the additional period of time for the individual to access theelectronic book has expired. For example, the content provider may senda notification to the individual via the client device that theadditional period of time to access the electronic book has expired. Inanother example, the content provider may provide the indication via apage of a site of the content provider, such as a page includinginformation about an account of the individual with the contentprovider. In some situations, the content provider may cause at least aportion of the electronic book to be removed from memory of the clientdevice in response to providing the indication that the additionalperiod of time for the individual to access the electronic book hasexpired. The content provider may also deny access to content of theelectronic book by the client device in response to receiving a contentaccess request related to the electronic book after providing theindication that the additional period of time to access the electronicbook has expired.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of a process 1000 to rent electronic booksutilizing a portfolio of time-bound licenses. At 1002, a contentprovider acquires a plurality of licenses associated with an electronicbook from a publisher of the electronic book. In certainimplementations, one or more of the licenses may be associated with afixed rental term, and in other implementations, one or more of thelicenses may be associated with a variable rental term. Additionally, insome cases, one or more of the licenses may be allocated to one or moreindividuals up to a predetermined maximum number of times in order toprovide the one or more individuals with access to content of theelectronic book for the particular rental term associated with the oneor more licenses.

At 1004, the content provider receives a request from a client device torent the electronic book for a period of time. At 1006, the contentprovider allocates a particular license of the plurality of licenses tothe client device. The particular license may be associated with aperiod of time that is the same as the period of time associated withthe request. That is, the particular license may be associated with arental term that corresponds to the requested period of time to rent theelectronic book.

At 1008, the content provider decreases the number of licenses that canbe allocated to rent the electronic book by one. Thus, fewer rentals ofthe electronic book can be offered by the content provider. At 1010, thecontent provider determines that the period of time to rent theelectronic book has expired. For example, the content provider maycompare an indicator of time with an expiration time for the rental termof the electronic book to determine that the rental term has expired. Inanother example, the content provider may receive an indication from theclient device that the rental term has expired. At 1012, the contentprovider increases the number of licenses that can be allocated to rentthe electronic book by one. Consequently, the content provider can nowoffer more rentals of the electronic book. However, although not shownin FIG. 10, if a maximum number of allocations for a particular licensehave occurred, then the number of licenses available to be allocated inorder to rent the electronic book does not increase upon expiration ofthe particular license.

CONCLUSION

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms ofimplementing the claims.

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: under control of one ormore computing systems of a content provider, the one or more computingsystems configured with specific executable instructions, receiving arental request from a client device of an individual to rent anelectronic book, the rental request specifying a period of time for theindividual to rent the electronic book; providing permission to theclient device for the individual to access the electronic book for theperiod of time specified by the rental request; receiving a rental termmodification request from the client device to change the period of timefor the individual to rent the electronic book; providing permission tothe client device for the individual to access the electronic book foran additional period of time based, at least partly, on the rental termmodification request; and providing an indication to the client devicethat the additional period of time for the individual to access theelectronic book has expired.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim1, acquiring permission to rent the electronic book from a publisher ofthe electronic book.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2,wherein acquiring permission to rent the electronic book from thepublisher of the electronic book comprises agreeing to provide paymentto the publisher in accordance with a transaction formula in order torent the electronic book to the individual.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 2, wherein acquiring permission to rent the electronicbook from the publisher of the electronic book comprises acquiring oneor more licenses to access content of the electronic book.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising sending anotification to the client device that the period of time specified inthe rental request will expire within a particular period of time, thenotification including at least one option selectable to modify theperiod of time for the individual to rent the electronic book.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the rental termmodification request is received, at least partly, in response toselection of the at least one option.
 7. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1, wherein the rental term modification request indicates arequest to extend the period of time for the individual to rent theelectronic book.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, whereinthe rental term modification request indicates a request to purchase theelectronic book.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising causing at least a portion of the electronic book to beremoved from memory of the client device after the additional period oftime for the individual to access the electronic book has expired. 10.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving a content access request from the client device to accesscontent of the electronic book after expiration of the additional periodof time; and denying the client device access to the electronic book atleast in partly in response to receiving the content access request. 11.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving a request from the client device to purchase an additionalelectronic book; and receiving a request from the client device toconvert the purchase of the additional electronic book to a rental ofthe additional electronic book for a certain period of time.
 12. Asystem comprising: a processor; and memory accessible to the processor,the memory storing: an electronic book publisher module executable bythe processor to acquire a plurality of licenses associated with anelectronic book, wherein each of the plurality of licenses providesaccess to the electronic book for a respective variable period of time;an electronic book rental module executable by the processor to: receivea request from a client device to rent the electronic book for a periodof time; allocate a particular license of the plurality of licenses tothe client device, at least partly in response to the request, for theperiod of time specified in the request; decrease a number of theplurality of licenses that are available to allocate to rent theelectronic book, at least partly in response to allocating theparticular license to the client device; and increase the number of theplurality of licenses that are available to allocate to rent theelectronic book when the period of time to rent the electronic bookexpires.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein one or more of theplurality of licenses may be allocated to rent the electronic book for arespective period of time that is different from the period of timespecified by the request received from the client device.
 14. The systemof claim 12, wherein the electronic book publisher module is executableby the processor to cause an initial rental payment to be provided tothe publisher at least partly in response to allocating the particularlicense to the client device.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein thememory further stores a publisher payment module executable by theprocessor to cause a royalty payment to be provided to the publisher atleast partly in response to allocating the particular license to anadditional client device.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein a value ofthe initial rental payment is greater than a value of the royaltypayment.
 17. The system of claim 12, wherein the memory further stores arental term modification module that is executable by the processor to:receive a request from the client device to extend the particular periodof time to rent the electronic book by an additional period of time; andprovide metadata of the electronic book to the client device, themetadata indicating permission for the client device to access contentof the electronic book for the additional period of time.
 18. The systemof claim 12, wherein the memory further stores a digital rightsmanagement module executable by the processor to determine whether theperiod of time for the client device to rent the electronic book hasexpired.
 19. An electronic reader device comprising: a processor; andmemory accessible by the processor, the memory storing: an electronicbook rental module that is executable by the processor to: send arequest to a content provider to rent an electronic book for a period oftime; receive metadata to access the electronic book for the period oftime; send a request to the content provider to modify the period oftime to access the electronic book; and modify the metadata of theelectronic book when the period of time to access the electronic book ismodified; and an electronic book rendering module executable by theprocessor to render at least a portion of the electronic book afterreceiving the metadata to access the electronic book.
 20. The computingsystem of claim 19, wherein the electronic book rendering module isexecutable by the processor to retrieve the at least a portion of theelectronic book from a local memory storage device of the electronicreader device.
 21. The computing system of claim 19, wherein theelectronic book rendering module is executable by the processor toretrieve the at least a portion of the electronic book by sending arequest to the content provider for the at least a portion of theelectronic book.
 22. The computing system of claim 19, wherein thememory further stores a digital rights management module executable bythe processor to compare an indicator of time stored by a local memorystorage device of the electronic reader device with particular metadataof the electronic book indicating when the period of time to rent theelectronic book expires.
 23. The computing system of claim 19, whereinthe metadata of the electronic book includes one or more vouchers, oneor more keys, one or more certificates, one or more tokens, orcombinations thereof.
 24. The computing system of claim 19, wherein thememory further stores a search module executable by the processor tosearch at least a portion of the content of the electronic book afterthe period of time to rent the electronic book expires.
 25. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: under control of one or morecomputing systems of a content provider, the one or more computingsystems configured with specific executable instructions, receiving arequest from a client device of an individual to rent an electronic bookfor a particular rental term; providing permission to the client devicefor the individual to access the electronic book for the particularrental term; receiving one or more annotations of the electronic bookfrom the client device during the particular rental term; and providingaccess to the one or more annotations after the particular rental termexpires.
 26. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, furthercomprising providing metadata of the electronic book to the clientdevice after the particular rental term expires, the metadata indicatingthat the one or more annotations are accessible by the client deviceafter the rental term expires.
 27. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 26, wherein the metadata indicates that the one or moreannotations are accessible by the client device for a limited period oftime after the rental term expires.
 28. The computer-implemented methodof claim 25, wherein the one or more annotations include notes, links,highlighted portions of the electronic book, other content related tothe electronic book that the individual has associated with theelectronic book, or combinations thereof.
 29. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 25, wherein the content provider provides access to theone or more annotations after the rental term expires via a site of thecontent provider.